Monday, March 10, 2014

In a surprising development concerning Kansas City Democracy, a group of anti-tax advocates threaten to stop toy train streetcar expansion in its tracks over a lack of transparency.

To wit . . .

RIGHT NOW BROOKSIDE OPPOSITION STAYS WINNING IN THE OPENING ROUNDS OF A FIGHT TO CHECK TRAIN STREETCAR PHASE II EXPANSION!!!

There are a lot of reasons why but here's a few that really stand out . . .

- Kansas City Anti-Tax Frustration - The taxing structure of the Toy Train Streetcar has always been suspect and sales tax rebellion in Kansas City offers a real chance to push back the toy train in much the same way the Jackson County translational tax suffered an EPIC defeat.

- Mayor Sly And Council Dude Russ Johnson seem over confident - In the downtown fight the toy train developers and politicos faced NO ORGANIZED OPPOSITION and any voices of dissent were easily ignored. This is because Downtown might be gaining residents but still lacks any organization or political structure. Not so in a REAL Kansas City neighborhood. Brooksiders vote, they know how elections work and they're not just clueless and transient condo/loft denizens. This institutional knowledge has already started to trouble toy train advocates.

- Real Voters Trump Fake Activist Consultants In Disguise - Again, in the Kansas City Downtown Toy Train Fight . . . D-bags like Staubio and a few others were able to trick voters into thinking they were activists not simply opportunists looking for another consulting contract. In Brookside, this trick has already fallen flat and is easily busted. The main key to past success simply won't work in a Kansas City neighborhood with a sense of history.

For these reason and so many more . . . Look for another way for Mayor Sly and Council dude Johnson to attempt to subvert Democracy in support of an expensive and frivolous Toy Train that a great many residents oppose.

42 Comments:

90% of the people living in River Market/Crossroads identify with Matt Staub and Dave Johnson. That is why the TDD was created. They didn't even have to sell the streetcar, they just showed up to meetings on their bicycles and talked microbrews.

I'll continue to fight for improved public transit once we defeat the streetcar expansion. I'mmore interested in BikeShare, barriered bicycle lanes, pedestrian bridges, improved technology, simpler, more direct bus routes, and even public art. All of this can be done to serve the entire metro area for a fraction of what the original Downtown streetcar line will cost us, leaving plenty of money for more important things like sewer upgrades, infrastructure repairs around schools, and ending the KCPD hiring freeze

Here's KCMO beggging for contributions to maintain and operate the city's fountains, laying off code enforcement employees, and the KCPD downsizing the new Victims' Rights Division, all because there's just no money to provide those services to residents.And there have already been many millions spent on the streetcar fiasco and the trail of debt disappears over the horizon.A city that works.Just not for you.What a clown show.

All right. That does it. I've been threatening to unleash the third draft of the Hipster Manifesto for days, and it hasn't deterred you critics of our streetcar vision, so here it is:

We hipsters are getting soooooo tired of all the negativity surrounding the glamorous streetcar we have decided this city (using the term loosely) will have, so we are hereby issuing the third draft of our Hipster Manifesto. After all, if it worked for Marx, it should work for us. We think Groucho would be so proud if only he were alive today, and if he wouldn't approve, well he could always move.

It’s obvious that some people in Kansas City are behind the times and do not understand the contributions we hipsters are making to this once moribund cowtown. As incredible as it seems, some people actually (can you believe it?) object to the fact that they are inconvenienced by all of the benefits we are bringing to flyover country simply by breathing the air in this midwestern backwater. Well, all we can say is get used to it. We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere—well, for a while, anyway. The following are the new rules we hipsters are establishing for this burnt out burg. If you do not like them, you can always move.

If you live anywhere from downtown to 85th Street, we reserve the right to hold marathons in your neighborhoods on any and all given Saturdays we choose. You should plan to stay in your homes and off the streets when we hold these events. If you are so inconsiderate that you simply must get out on one of the Saturdays we have occupied your neighborhood, please plan to do so after we are finished with our marathons, as we will do everything possible to thwart any automobile traffic we see. If you object to our taking over your neighborhoods for a good cause, you are a whiner, a cheapskate, and probably an obese doughnut-eating anti-fitness freak, and you do not deserve to live anywhere, let alone in the pleasant neighborhoods we have decided to honor with our presence so frequently. If you’re Jewish and are trying to get to temple (we hear this excuse a lot—even from people who are probably not even Jewish), we’ll you’re not supposed to be operating machinery on the Sabbath anyway, so there. If you do not like this, you can always move.

We reserve the right to install any and all streetcar lines whenever and wherever we decide. Although we live in condos and apartments downtown that offer property tax subsidies, you are required to pay for the streetcars whether or not you ever use them. And don’t tell us to take the bus. We know there are a lot of them in this backwater, but buses are so Twentieth Century and are certainly not worthy of us hipsters. If you do not like this, you can always move. (Continued)

We hipsters are getting soooooo tired of all the negativity surrounding the glamorous streetcar we have decided this city (using the term loosely) will have, so we are hereby issuing the third draft of our Hipster Manifesto. After all, if it worked for Marx, it should work for us. We think Groucho would be so proud if only he were alive today, and if he wouldn't approve, well he could always move.

It’s obvious that some people in Kansas City are behind the times and do not understand the contributions we hipsters are making to this once moribund cowtown. As incredible as it seems, some people actually (can you believe it?) object to the fact that they are inconvenienced by all of the benefits we are bringing to flyover country simply by breathing the air in this midwestern backwater. Well, all we can say is get used to it. We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere—well, for a while, anyway. The following are the new rules we hipsters are establishing for this burnt out burg. If you do not like them, you can always move.

If you live anywhere from downtown to 85th Street, we reserve the right to hold marathons in your neighborhoods on any and all given Saturdays we choose. You should plan to stay in your homes and off the streets when we hold these events. If you are so inconsiderate that you simply must get out on one of the Saturdays we have occupied your neighborhood, please plan to do so after we are finished with our marathons, as we will do everything possible to thwart any automobile traffic we see. If you object to our taking over your neighborhoods for a good cause, you are a whiner, a cheapskate, and probably an obese doughnut-eating anti-fitness freak, and you do not deserve to live anywhere, let alone in the pleasant neighborhoods we have decided to honor with our presence so frequently. If you’re Jewish and are trying to get to temple (we hear this excuse a lot—even from people who are probably not even Jewish), we’ll you’re not supposed to be operating machinery on the Sabbath anyway, so there. If you do not like this, you can always move.

We reserve the right to install any and all streetcar lines whenever and wherever we decide. Although we live in condos and apartments downtown that offer property tax subsidies, you are required to pay for the streetcars whether or not you ever use them. And don’t tell us to take the bus. We know there are a lot of them in this backwater, but buses are so Twentieth Century and are certainly not worthy of us hipsters. If you do not like this, you can always move. (Continued)

We are not going to be bothered by learning the differences between your and you’re, its and it’s, to, too, and two, “should have” and “should of” and all the other rules of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. These rules are for the small minded, and we have our minds occupied with much larger and more important things like tweeting and updating our Facebook pages. You say a sentence should start with a capital letter and end with a period? we say who cares if you can’t understand what we’re trying to say well that’s you’re problem and you can always move

We hipsters think it's time to revisit the story of the emperor who had no clothes. In that story you will recall everyone believed the emperor was dressed in the finest clothing possible until a little brat offered his unsolicited opinion that the emperor was not wearing any clothing. Well, who would you believe? Everyone who admires the new clothes or the little brat? Please accept that we hipsters have a vision for Kansas City, and we will impose that vision on you, vote or no vote. So don't be like the little brat and spoil the illusion--er, I mean vision--for everyone. Never mind the man behind the curtain even if he does look a little like the mayor, in other words. And if you don't like it, you can always move.

We, like the employees of “The Circle” in Dave Eggers’ insightful book of the same name want you to “like” us and rate us highly. If you do not give us top marks, we will only contact you for further explanation and justification for not rating us highly, so you might just as well save us both a lot of time and rate us exceptional in the first time around. Remember, we’ve been rated “outstanding” all our lives for just breathing, and we like it that way.

In the future as we hook up and reproduce, we, like everyone kewl, will be moving to the ‘burbs. You certainly don’t expect us to stick around this debt-ridden hole once the price tag for the streetcar and the new airport comes due, do you? Hell, no! We won’t stay! Our helicopter parents cleaned up after us all our lives so far, and now it’s someone else’s turn! We, like Hitler, need our Lebensraum, although some of our best friends are Jews. And our new living rooms will be in the ‘burbs, probably even in JOCO if it’s still kewl. One of the neatest things about Kansas City is the state line. Once we cross it, presto, and all of the city’s problems are now someone else’s problems! It will be springtime for JOCO and winter for KC, so all you smug JOCO folks, so snug as a bug in a rug, watch out. We’ll be coming to your towns soon, and boy will we make changes there. You won’t recognize the place once we do our thing, and if you don’t like it, well you can always move.

Please feel free to suggest additions to the Manifesto. Like us, it’s a piece of work in progress.

Oopsie! This one should go inbetween part one and two. (sorry--a word you rarely hear us hipsters use).

The taxing structure of the inevitable streetcar project was SUPPOSED to be a secret, but obviously someone blabbed. Yes, those who live within a half mile or so of the line will pay more in property taxes, and yes it’s supposed to be only for 25 years, but you know the city’s never gonna let go of that dough! And yes, the whole city gets to decide to impose this tax on the few who live near the streetcar lines and who also get to put up with the noise, dust, and all the other neato stuff that goes along with it. Well, so what? You should be happy the new technology will bring us closer to you. Why just having us ride within a half mile of your house should be worth something! And besides, if a whole state can vote to deny the tax breaks married people get to gay people, well, what’s wrong with the whole city making a minority of property owners pay a little more for the things we want? What’s good for the goosed is good for whatever. And a lot of people in Brookside and Waldo are gay, anyway, so they’re used to getting shafted when it comes to taxes. (A few of us hipsters are gay, so we put this in just for them; we do have to pander every now and again even if we don’t really think they’re as kewl as us.) If you people in Brookside and Waldo do not like our taking over your neighborhoods for such events as marathons and streetcars and paying for our new toys, well that’s your problem. You should of thought about that before you moved into such attractive neighborhoods in the first place, and you can always move. (Continued)

Each and every streetcar line should have a stop at a Wal-Mart. While in principle we hipsters would not be caught dead in one of these places, in practice we do like low prices. Starbucks only pays so much, you know, and, let’s face it, with so many of us majoring in fine arts history, Wal-Mart is a good source of employment until we can get our real lives jump started or find a job at Starbucks, so, although we do like to keep it quiet, some of us actually have jobs at Wal-Mart and no cars. Don’t get us wrong. We certainly don’t want to live near a Wal-Mart. Heavens, no! Why, have you seen the kind of people Wal-Mart attracts? Eeeeeeew!

While we condemn any overt discrimination against people of color, we don’t really want to have anything to do with them (unless they happen to be hipsters, like us), hence our aversion to buses and our unwillingness to cross Troost and certainly Prospect. It’s all good and well to talk equality, but really, people! We are, of course, willing to use racism as a tool against any and all of our opponents. If you don’t like marathons, streetcars, and higher taxes for things we want, you’re a racist, in other words. See how well that works? If you don’t like it, you can always move to some Ku Klux Klan enclave in Utah or wherever.

Most of us cannot afford cars. (Starbucks only pays so much, you know.) And those who can afford cars do not like them, so we have decided that such car-friendly facilities as Kansas City International Airport are much too convenient and must be replaced with, for example, a single-terminal airport so that when our hipster friends come to visit us we will be able to hold our heads up and be proud of the fact that we will have an airport that is just as inconvenient as those in larger cities. If you do not like this, you can always move.

We reserve the right to make and answer any and all calls whenever and wherever we are, whether in a theater, a movie, a church, the restrooms at COSTCO, Half Price Books, a library, wherever. Our calls are much more important than anything you have going on. So what if you have to wait a few minutes longer when the cashier has to wait for us to end our call. Will this kill you? How rude can you get? If you do not like this, you should stay at home, shop online, and watch TV. Or better yet, you can always move to an Amish community. (Continued)

Since day one amateur "transit experts" Matt Staub and David Johnson, two small town boys from Kansas and Nebraska have been offering little more than a continuous Gong Show of implausible made-up spectacle to advance their own personal careers. Some gullible people bought their hype but for the rest of Kansas City it's hard to take anything Downtown Streetcar supporters say seriously anymore. Welcome to the real world boyz. Your game is about to end.

To wake up, one dull gray morning, to the knowledge that you've been wrong about everything, and that all the so called marvelous benefits of a "free" streetcar are nothing more than an elaborate fabrication, is a life-shattering experience.

Fearing the future doesn't stop it from coming. It just ensures you get passed by.

"Car use appears to have leveled off and even started falling in many of the world’s advanced economies long before the global downturn in 2008, according to transport experts.

The slowdown brings to an end several decades in which car use grew roughly twice as fast as real GDP and incomes.

The trend is consistent across the United States"

"More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile for trips within metropolitan areas, the American Public Transportation Association said in a report released on Monday."

"More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile for trips within metropolitan areas, the American Public Transportation Association said in a report released on Monday."

I heard this on NPR this morning, and I knew our local hipsters would try to twist it to their advantage. Please note, hipsters, a bus is transit, even though you may not find them hip enough for you. The streetcar, along with the Confederacy, is a lost cause. Get over it and yourselves.

8:50 is having heart palpitations as he writes that and wants it to be true soooo badly.

I've been fighting streetcar for just over a year now, and something worth noting is that the opposition is almost entirely Obama loving Democrats. Cincinnati blamed their opposition on the tea party, but that's not the case here at all.

I saw Lee Judge has done editorial cartoons against streetcar, and I know that of the opposition who I know their political leanings, 2 out of three are liberal.

I'm impressed with the anti-streetcar meetings, the turnouts, the strategies, and the passion. Johnson and Staub were over confident when they went into Brookside. They didn't even have to work for the starter line. I think there's a really good chance the TDD is defeated in August and they don't even make it to November.

Bryan-Agree. Note how the pro-streetcar people are always so willing to accuse those opposed of racism. ("Not wanting to bring crime into the area.") As if these areas were not already adequately served by buses. When the folks who live within the magic half mile find out how much this thing's going to cost for 25 years, the shit will hit the fan, and it will all be over. As for the 2-mile "starter," that election was never in doubt because it was a fraud to begin with. Had the entire city had a say, it would have gone down in flames as well.

Yeah most people in brooksiders are grown ups with strong pro-kc feelings, not 20 something sulkers crying about how "everything sucks in kc". And most of is understand the facts like the streetcar doesn't kill children or let black people find us or steal our jogging trail.

Sorry Bryan, you've sept years fighting a battle against an imaginary enemy and very few real adults in brooksiders think your pet cause is worthwhile. In fact most of us know you are carrying water for pat Touhey and dan Coffey and Susie burke and other city haters.

There's a reason brooksiders have votes yes for every light rail proposal for the last 15 years. A cartoonist, 2 tea party nutjobs and a misdirected nimby sewing circle aren't going to change the facts:

Transit is critical to our future. Transit is expensive. And we brooksiders support it.

They all have their place but the commonality is that there is not a single bus-only system of any merit in the us or most of the world.

Vote it down ad get left in the dust by Omaha Tucson Charlotte and other non cities.

And the idea that this is some hipster thing is absurd. I'm 48 and my family has lived here fr generations while you kids with internet echo chambers to work you up don't even live in the city now.

Long after the anti progress morons who want kc to stay stuck in the 1980s have moved to their retirement villas in sojoco this supposed hipsters will be making the city a real city again and all the 20 something kc sucks crowd of this blog will have move to the hinterlands if some character free ahithole like Indianapolis or Oklahoma City, but by then both of them will have light rail like everywhere else.

The idea that a cartoonist and a woman from parkville represent this part of the city is ridiculous.

You sad kids live in an echo chamber where you believe fairy tales about kc corruption and black menace and libtarda and free market hocus pocus.

I've attended 2 of these meeting and the more I learn the more I like the project..

Also, the anti-streetcar people just seem like bullies who interrupt and yell and if you listen almost nothing they say is true.

On the website, the trolley trail is still there, you can look up your exact assessment rates per year for your house, and they're not unreasonable to pay for real transit, which this town lacks sorely.

The more the anti-streetcar people talk, and after reading their facebook its pretty clear they are just blindly grasping a straws and making things up.

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